The People's Daily (人民日报) is a Simplified-Chinese-language newspaper published worldwide with a circulation of 3 to 4 million. People's Daily (人民日报) takes its place among the world top 10, according to UNESCO, though it is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China.

The first issue of the paper was published in June 15, 1948 in Pingshan, Hubei as the paper of a regional branch of the Communist Party. The offices were moved to Beijing in March 1949 and it became the official paper of the Communist Party of China in August of that year. As newspaper of the Communist Party, it often provides direct information about the policies and viewpoints of Communist Party of China.

During the Cultural Revolution, the People's Daily (人民日报) was one of the few sources of information from which either foreigners or Chinese could figure out what the Chinese government was doing. During that period, an editorial in the People's Daily (人民日报) would be considered an powerful statement of government policy.

The People's Daily (人民日报) is the chief information source of the Chinese Communist Party. In addition, editorials in the People's Daily (人民日报) are also still regarded as fairly authoritative statements of government policy. Although all editorials, commentaries and opinions published in People's Daily must be government approved, they're different sharply on the amount of official authoritativeness they contain.

Since the mid-1990s, the People's Daily (人民日报) has faced a decline of governmental subsidies combined with increasing competition from international news sources and Chinese tabloids. As part of its effort to modernize, it began an online edition in 1997, and the web bulletin forums, such as the Strong Nation Forum in the Chinese edition, has been known for their surprisingly candid content.

Now, People's Daily (人民日报) has three kinds of editions: Mainland Edition, for readers from Chinese mainland; Hong Kong Edition, for Hong Kong readers; and Overseas Edition, for readers other than the two areas. People's Daily of Mainland Edition doesn't give clear indication of its edition type, unlike the other two editions. Its Hong Kong Edition has much more contents, while Mainland Edition has fairly less.

Published under the People's Daily (人民日报) are also ten newspapers including People's Daily Overseas Edition (人民日报海外版), East China News (华东新闻), South China News (华南新闻), Market Daily, International Financial Daily (国际金融日报), Jiangnan Times (江南时报), Global Times (环球时报), Securities Times (证券时报), Health Times, Satire and Humor (讽刺与幽默) and six monthly magazines including The Earth (地球), News Front, Listed Companies (企业名录), Times Trend, People Forum.

To date, People's Daily (人民日报) has got the contents of its subsidiary papers and magazines onto the Internet to disseminate information throughout the world.

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